Who will buy the cars now?

Who will buy the cars now?

EDITOR:

After 35 years of working as a salaried worker for General Motors and contributing to my health-care cost over the last 20 years, I feel what General Motors did to the GM salaried worker and Delphi salaried worker is a case of shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to future car sales.

Delphi salaried workers have been totally destroyed by the actions of GM after taking our bailout money to fix the mess they have slowly created over the last 20 years. GM has taken over 1,200 retirees and their families out of the car market. Who can afford a new car or two when your pension has been cut and you have to pay for your health- care costs?

As a GM salaried retiree, starting Jan. 1, our health care coverage has gone from paying monthly premiums and $2,000 out of pocket to paying higher monthly premiums and a $7,000 out of pocket before out health care kicks in. At this time there are about 1,000 GM salary retirees and their families living in the Mahoning Valley that will feel this effect. If I stay healthy I will be OK, but if we do not, you can do the math. It would cost me about $900 a month if my health forces me to have medical attention.

These numbers are only in this area. There are at least 120,000 GM salaried workers retired in the United States. Take this number and multiply by 4. I estimate that GM will lose about 500,000 new car sales a year because of these actions.

Until I get old enough to go on Medicare, a new car for myself or my wife is out of the question. These numbers can be supplemented by angry extended family members who have watched a family member’s financial future be destroyed.

FREDERICK P. CARNIVALE

Youngstown

Give Traficant no more ink

EDITOR:

On New Year’s Eve day I opened my paper as usual and there he was, staring at me. Jim Traficant. (I’m not familiar enough with him to call him Jimbo) The hint of a smile he wore seemed to be saying, Gotcha.

When he was released from prison I thought he would sort of settle down and do some community work to make up for his misdeeds, but when I saw the pictures of his release I realized I was dead wrong. The white shorts and long socks was not a picture of humility.

Now, when he does his own impression of Ronald McDonald, to the delight of his loyal fans, I shudder. I realize that the Pied Piper is back, and his followers are lined up behind him, ready to follow wherever he wants them to go.

I’m certain they don’t think that they are whipping a dead horse, and that it cannot get up and run, but my question is this: How can the Vindicator appear to go along for the ride?

To make him one of the top stories of the year is not only ridiculous, but also insulting to your readers.

Surely you don’t think any of his outrageous statements has any chance of happening. His chance of being elected to a office of any kind is the same as the proverbial snowball you know where.

I suggest that your future articles about Mr. Traficant be placed in the bottom of page seven, or maybe lost altogether.

ART AARON

Poland

Happy trails ... sometimes

EDITOR:

As a retired older person who gave up skiing downhill a good many years ago, I am grateful to have the Mill Creek Metroparks cross-country ski trail so convenient to where I live for frequent excursions. In past snowy winters, I have completed the circuit around the golf course’s 36 holes more than 40 times.

I am especially thankful to be able to use the ski trail when the park’s trails become too icy for safe walking. (I broke my right wrist in a fall on an icy trail some years ago.)

But the snow conditions on the golf course can be very fluky, and there have been many times when I have had to walk in off the trail, carrying my skis.

Last Tuesday, I thought that conditions were good for an outing as it was cold and there was a good amount of snow, some of which had fallen overnight.

However, aforesaid fluky conditions prevailed. I had forgotten my ski scraper, and had to stop numerous times to scrape the ice and packed snow off the bottoms of my skis on trees, benches and on the edge of the walls of a restroom. By the time I reached the intersection of West Golf Drive and Route 224 I was so exasperated and tired that I doffed my skis and walked back to the clubhouse parking lot on the road, carrying the skis over my shoulder.

The next day, The Vindicator ran a front page photo taken the previous day of a young woman skier who was quoted as saying she enjoyed zipping along on the golf course trail and observing wildlife. I certainly hadn’t done any “zipping” that same day. (I can’t explain the discrepancy between her experience and mine, except that perhaps she exaggerated her experience a little, or that she skied much later in the day than I had after previous skiers had improved the trail.)

My point is that skiing conditions on the park trail can be so variable that one can enjoy an outing or be very disappointed. The park apparently thinks that all it has to do to create a cross-country skiing course is to erect an appropriate sign and plow a parking lot without any thought of trail conditions.

I have skied a number of times at Allegany State Park near Jamestown, N.Y., and know that they groom an impressive number of trails, as do other cross-country skiing facilities.

I don’t know if trail grooming would be feasible for the Metroparks, but I have suggested that they consider it.

ROBERT R. STANGER

Boardman

Drowning in rate increases

EDITOR:

With gasoline, natural gas and electric costs steadily on the rise (not to mention food and practically everything else) I have felt like a minnow swimming in an ocean full of sharks for a few years now. I am sure that most people with children at home already consider water a major expense, especially in the suburbs. The Water District has been slipping in small raises for the last eight years, and I have the old bills to prove it. These small raises have become very noticeable by now. Well, it seems we haven’t seen anything yet, because these people who have never seen a raise they did not like are not even close to the end of the increases.

If you don’t feel like you’re drowning yet, you may in the near future. Their new plan raises rates 8.75 percent in just three weeks and over 50 percent in the next four years. My normal bill right now is $42, even with a small discount for a homestead exemption (this includes the sewer charge, which is obscene). I am definitely not looking forward to the future.

If county or township officials are wondering why tax levies aren’t passed, they don’t have to look very far. You just can’t get blood from a stone.

RAY MAGGIANETTI

Austintown

GOP only opposes this reform

EDITOR:

The editorial statement that all Republicans are against health-care reform is just not true. Along with a solid majority of the American public, Republicans are against health-care reform as it is now being pushed down our throats ... and with good reason.

As packaged now, it will greatly expand the national debt and create a public option which translates in to more inefficient government bureaucracy. It forces people to buy insurance or be fined. It adds payroll taxes to small business at a time when unemployment exceeds 10 percent. It increases the states’ burden concerning Medicaid. It still won’t cover millions of uninsured. As noted, the debate is being conducted in secret behind closed doors despite the president’s promise it would be open and transparent.

There are a lot of good reasons to be against this version of health care reform and it has nothing to do with party affiliation. It’s funny that the unanimous Democratic support is not similarly scrutinized.

TIM RYAN

Newton Falls